"The report that has come to me is that it is a difficult place (to land) though the runway is long enough. The rains and winds were there. Then, it landed and slipped," Union civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi said.

At least 20 flights were cancelled and nine diverted to Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports as the runway was closed for the day for repair work.

"The incident happened at 3.55am. The pilot said he couldn't see the runway due to bad weather even when the aircraft was just 350-feet high," said VJ Kurian, managing director of Cochin International Airport Limited.